Current Events

Home Ministry adopts Measured Approach to deal with Radicalisation in India and ISIS Menace

Ministry of Home Affairs has taken a serious note of the increasing trend of ISIS radicalization menace and discussed the issue of curative measures with several state secretaries and DGPs, with special emphasis on Telangana, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. In yesterday’s meeting, MHA has reportedly adopted a “more nuanced and measured approach”. It is decided that FIR registration and prosecution of a radicalized youth will not be followed as first step. Rather counseling sessions with the help of their elderly family members will be adopted for de-radicalisation, per assessment. Reports say that capacity building of police officers in different states will be done through training programmes.

02-Aug-2015Politics

8 More FIRs filed by CBI in Vyapam Scam

CBI today registered 8 more FIRs related to Vyapam scam, taking the total number of FIRs to 23. The 1st and 2nd cases are lodged against 22 people and 28 people on impersonation charges during Vyapam-conducted PMT 2011﻿ and PMT 2012 respectively. While Constable Recruitment Examination 2013 (II) cheating case has been filed in 3rd case, cheating by impersonation case in PMT-2009 has been filed in the 4th (against six), 5th (against two), and 6th (against one) FIRs. Both 7th and 8th FIRs are done against one and two persons respectively for cheating by impersonation on 2012’s police constable recruitment exam.

01-Aug-2015Politics

India, Bangladesh witness another Freedom at Midnight after 68 Years

At midnight, India and Bangladesh swapped 164 enclaves, amounting to 24,270.65 acres of land (17,160.63 acres in 111 enclaves going to Bangladesh and 7,110.02 acres in 51 enclaves to India). During the historic exchange programme, 51,000 jubilant residents lit 68 candles and cracked fire crackers to mark freedom from the misery of statelessness after 68 years of independence. While 51 Bangladeshi enclaves have been included in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district, 111 Indian enclaves included in Bangladesh are located in Nilphamari, Kurigram, Panchagarh, and Lalmonirhat districts. Reports say process of shifting people to both sides of the border will be completed by November 30.

Union Urban Development minister, M. Venkaiah Naidu, during an international seminar said that Rs.50,000 crore fund has been earmarked by Union Government for developing 100 smart cities across India, as initial step of infrastructure development. The concerned seminar was organized by Department of Urban and Regional Planning of the University of Florida, Institute for Human Development (IHD), and NITI Aayog. Naidu stressed upon improving lives of urban populace, enhancing participation of people during development of smart cities, and assisting Rs. 100 crore per year assistance for 5 years. While vouching for large scale reform, minister said that inclusive and sustainable urban development is their main focus.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday placed a plan in the parliament for approval of Rs. 70,000 crore to be given to the public sector banks, which are suffering from insurmountable debt due to stacking up of Non Performing Assets (NPAs). A Finance Ministry statement said that according to the plan Rs 25,000 crore will be provided to debt-laden public banks during 2015-16 and 2016-17 each. In fact, a fund of Rs. 20,000 crore will be provided during following fiscal years – 2017-18 and 2018-19. Reports say that the banks that will get Rs. 10,262 crore of the funds include SBI, Bank of Baroda, PNB, BoI, IDBI, and Canara Bank.

Analytical unit of Moody's Corporation, Moody's Analytics, has strongly criticised Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Council’s revised draft proposal where the latter proposed doing away of veto power of the RBI Governor on interest rate determination (determined by a 7-member committee) and many other controversial ones. As per Moody’s these moves are equivalent to undermining the apex court’s independence of setting key rates. The rating agency’s analytical wing has also backed RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s efforts of restricting inflation within a certain level. The report says that during Rajan’s on-going tenure inflation has come down from 2-digit figure, followed by improvement in external accounts.

A report by IDC, an IT firm research company, has forecasted a 9.6 per cent growth rate of Business analytics software market in India against 6.8 per cent growth rate across Asia-Pacific region till 2019. The concerned market in India will swell to US$ 583 million (equivalent to Rs. 3,442 crores) by 2019. Craig Stires, Associate Vice President (Big Data, Analytics and Software) of IDC Asia Pacific, said companies operating in India are using business analytics software to reduce data review time significantly. The report says that spending on end-user tools are expected to grow at the rate of 10 per cent on a year-on-year basis till 2019.

India moves one step closer to 100 per cent bio-diesel after road transport ministry yesterday introduced a draft notification for mass emission standards for vehicles that will be known by the name "B100" vehicles such as BS-III or BS-IV. Government is mulling the idea of introducing bio-diesel vehicles because they are not only less polluting but also renewable. Reports say with the introduction of bio-diesel, government is trying to reduce its dependence on crude oil import. Test requirement standards for newly manufactured vehicles, having compression ignition engine for using 100 per cent bio-diesel or mixture of it, is also included in the draft notification.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has planned to pump in Rs. 400 crore funds in IIT Madras as well as IIT Bombay for starting research and development of advanced defence-related aerospace. Reports say unique tripartite MoU signed by the two IITs and DRDO, just a few days back, is currently awaiting approval from Defence Ministry. Ministry is expected to approve the agreement in couple of months. While Rs. 180 crore will be given to IIT Madras and IIT Bombay each for research, Rs. 50 crore to Rs. 60 crore is expected to be given by DRDO to IIT Bombay for development of infrastructure.

Rajat Chauhan Contends with Silver at World Archery Championships, But Still Makes Historic Feat

20 year old Rajat Chauhan won silver during World Archery Championships. It is a historic win as he is the first Indian archer to win a silver medal, in compound individual event, in the world championship, held in Copenhagen. Rajat Chauhan lost to Denmark’s Stephan Hansen by 147-143. Chauhan started well by scoring 29 points in the first two sets, tying points with Stephan Hansen. However, in the 3rd set, the Indian archer was able to get just 27 points against Hansen’s perfect 30 score. Though Rajat managed to decrease the lead by 1 point, another perfect score by Hansen in final set sealed the deal against the Indian.

01-Aug-2015Sports

Golfer Ranveer Saini becomes First Indian to Win Gold at Special Olympics World Games

14-year old autistic Indian golfer Ranveer Singh Saini achieved a historic feat yesterday as he won the first ever gold by any Indian in the Special Olympics World Games. Ranveer won gold in the GF Golf-Level 2 Alternate Shot Team Play event. He achieved the top slot by playing in a world tournament, participated by 21 countries. The Gurgaon-based golfer was diagnosed with autism, a neurological disorder, at the age of two. However, he started playing golf at the age of nine. In fact, Ranveer Singh Saini won two gold medals two years back at Asia Pacific World Games.

31-Jul-2015Sports

Rajat Chauhan in World Archer Championship's Final

Rajat Chauhan reached World Championships of Archery men’s final after defeating Colombia’s Camilo Andres Cardona in the semi-finals with the final score 143-138. In the final match Rajat will face-off with Stephan Hansen of Denmark. Deepika Kumari lost to her Chinese opponent in the 3rd round. Laxmirani Majhi, in the women's individual recurve, defeated China’s Jiaxin Wu and Mexico’s Valencia Alejandra in the pre-quarter and quarter-final matches respectively but lost to Shih-Chia Lin of Chinese Taipei. Laxmirani will now play against South Korea’s Misun Choi for the bronze medal. Mangal Singh Champia secured his individual berth for the 2016 Rio Olympics after entering recurve quarterfinals.

First ever meet of Indian Army and China's People's Liberation Army in Daulat Beg Oldie

China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) had a historic, first of its kind, meeting with delegation of Indian Army in the area named Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) along LAC in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh sector. A defence spokesperson said that this kind of border-troops level talks, hosted by PLA in DBO, took place for the first time. While Colonel Song Zhoanli led the Chinese delegation, Colonel BS Uppal led the Indian delegation. He also said that the event included ceremonial address by delegate leaders, cultural programme, etc. The spokesperson also said that maintaining peace and cordial relations along LAC was the mutual feeling at end of the meeting.

01-Aug-2015Others

MEA says 2 out of 4 Indians kidnapped by ISIS in Libya Freed

Ministry of External Affairs has said that two (Karnataka’s Vijay Kumar and Laxmikant) out of the four Indians abducted by ISIS militants from Libya’s Sirte town have been released. Vikas Swarup, spokesperson of MEA, said the two released Indian teachers have been brought back to the University of Sirte and MEA is trying for release of Hyderabad’s Gopikrishnan and Balaram. Indian government has not yet called the abduction a hostage situation as no ransom call has been made yet. With US media reports revealing possible attack on India by Islamic State militants, a high-level Union Home Ministry meeting is underway. Multiple state DGPs and home secretaries are attending the meeting.

One of the main culprits of 1993 Mumbai serial blast Dawood Ibrahim’s chief henchman, Chhota Shakeel, in an exclusive interview with a national news channel, warned of serious consequences due to the “legal murder” of “innocent” Yakub Memon and said that the D-company condemns it. He also pointed out “betrayal” of the Indian government on the “promises of leniency” made for luring Yakub back to India. Chhota Shakeel also said that the fate of Dawood would have been same as Yakub if the former too came back to India at that time. He also questioned the message that “Indian government sent across” to all who were contemplating surrender.